


The Son of Apollo

by writingtothestars



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020), Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The PJO AU that no one asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29561922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingtothestars/pseuds/writingtothestars
Summary: When the three of them made it to camp and found out about quests, they had instantly made a pact. When one of them got their quest, they had to pick the other two to go with them. Unless, of course, the prophecy said otherwise, but why would it? The three of them couldn’t be separated.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 20
Kudos: 74





	1. Today is the Day!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm supposed to be writing an essay, but I got hyperfocused on this idea, and I wrote it instead :)
> 
> Thank you to Rio for helping me figure out what cabins everyone should go in!
> 
> The title is a reference to "Son of Poseidon" from the Lightning Thief Musical, because I think that song slaps

_Today is the day_ , Luke thinks to himself as he wakes up. Excitement boils in his chest as he jumps out of his bunk, ready to go the second his feet touch the cabin floor. _Today is the day_!

The other campers are already up and moving around the cabin as they get ready for the day. Luke is anxious, but not anxious enough to wake up early. He’s in such a good mood that he actually takes the time to make his bed, which makes his half-siblings cast worried and curious looks his way as they leave the cabin. He gives everyone a big smile as he straightens his blankets.

_Today is the day!_

His sneakers are only halfway on as he runs out the door. The laces tangle around his feet as he hurries toward the Dining Pavilion.

“Carry me!” Someone yells, and there’s a sudden weight on his back as he’s tackled.

Luke staggers around, trying to find his balance. One of his shoelaces catches beneath his sneaker and he feels himself toppling forward. He lands with a grunt, and then a moan as an elbow digs into his spine.

“I said to carry me, not cushion my fall,” Reggie moans as he rolls off of Luke and sits down on the path.

Alex appears above them, looking exasperated. “Reggie, man, we’ve talked about this. You can’t just tell people to carry you when they don’t expect it.” He moves his gaze to Luke. “If you don’t start tying your shoelaces, I’m getting you Velcro shoes so you don’t die.”

Luke snorts. “Okay, _mom_. Make sure that they light up when I stomp.”

“Bro, either you had strawberry jam on the back of your shirt, or your spine cut my elbow,” Reggie says, holding his arm up for inspection.

“My spine cut your elbow?” Luke laughs. “Your elbow broke my spine!”

Alex is already digging in his fanny pack, and he produces a small packet of disinfectant and a handful of band-aids. The band-aids are an aggressive shade of orange that matches their camp shirts. During the one time that the three of them left camp, Alex had bought a box of Lisa Frank band-aids from a pharmacy, but he gave them away after one of the Ares campers made a comment about them. Luke wishes he would buy them again; there’s something so healing about having sparkly little pictures covering your wounds.

“You’re a better healer than me,” Luke notes as Alex pulls him and Reggie to their feet.

“Have you been working on healing?” Alex asks.

Luke shudders. “Not since the incident.”

He folds his shoelaces into his sneakers and starts speed-walking toward the Pavilion. They’re not late, but he wishes his friends would move faster. _Today is the day!_

“Why are you in such a rush?” Reggie asks.

“You know why,” Alex says. He nudges Luke’s shoulder. “You do know that you have to wait until this afternoon, right? Hurrying through the first part of the day isn’t going to make it go any faster.”

Realistically, he knows this. But as any teenager with ADHD knows, time is meaningless, even if your dad is the one moving the sun across the sky. _And_ , he thinks to himself, _it’s not like there’s any proof that rushing through the first part of the day_ won’t _make it go faster._

“I’m just pumped,” he admits. “I’ve been waiting for this since we were thirteen!”

“Yeah, but quests probably aren’t all that they’re cracked up to be,” Alex says wearily.

When the three of them made it to camp and found out about quests, they had instantly made a pact. When one of them got their quest, they had to pick the other two to go with them. Unless, of course, the prophecy said otherwise, but why would it? The three of them couldn’t be separated.

 _Yes you can_ , a voice in the back of Luke’s mind warns. _Have you already forgotten what happened the last time you thought that?_

Luke shudders.

“I’d like a quest,” Reggie muses as they step into the food line. “Mostly for the chance to show off my epic swordsmanship, but the rest of it seems fun, too.”

Luke throws his arms around his friends’ shoulders and pulls them close. “If I go, there’s no one else that I want by my side.” He looks towards Reggie. “Your swordsmanship –“ He turns to Alex. “ – combined with your gardening skills, plus my vocal talents, equals one trio that is a force to be reckoned with!”

The line moves forward. Luke fills his plate and then steps up to the brazier. He tosses his best pancake into the fire, followed by two pieces of bacon, and some of his scrambled eggs, because why not? He’s in a good mood and feeling generous.

 _Please_ , he thinks as the food falls into the flames.

If his father can hear him, the only response he gets is a whiff of hyacinths and laurels. He chooses to take this as a good sign. _Today is the day!_

The group has to split up then, which always makes Luke nervous, no matter how long he lives at Camp Half-Blood. He prefers the winter months, when almost no one is there and the seating chart isn’t enforced at meals, but he manages to make it through the summer.

Alex splits off first, heading toward Cabin Four’s table. He’s always reluctant to leave his friends, but his face lights up when he sees Willie sitting amongst his siblings. He gives Luke and Reggie an almost giddy look before he rushes off to sit next to the satyr.

Reggie walks with Luke to Cabin 7’s table and sighs as Luke joins his siblings.

“Pray for me,” he groans as he continues walking to the Hermes table.

Luke squeezes his hand before he goes, and then watches him as he tries to find a seat at the most crowded table in the pavilion.

“Maybe with all the new campers coming in, he’ll finally get claimed,” one of Luke’s siblings - a boy named Nick - says in a way that’s probably supposed to be encouraging.

But they’ve been at camp since they were thirteen. If Reggie hasn’t been claimed in the four years they’ve lived at Camp Half-Blood, there’s not much of a chance that it will happen any time soon.

Luke thinks over Nick’s words. “Wait, did you say there are new campers?” Normally he wouldn’t be surprised, but it seems like it’s been ages since any new demigods have found their way into camp.

Nick nods as he takes a sip from his goblet. “I was up at The Big House this morning, and some Hunters of Artemis were starting to arrive. One of the Hermes kids said that they’ve brought in some new campers.”

“The Hunters? Not one of the satyrs?”

“Nope, they were Hunters. I know because one of them screamed when she saw me. I tried to reassure her by explaining that I’m a son of Apollo, but that just made her run away.”

Mr. D calls everyone to attention before Luke can respond. He doesn’t bother to listen to any of the announcements. All he can think about is why the Hunters have come to camp. He’s worried that it might interfere with the meeting he’s supposed to have with Chiron that afternoon. It’s a selfish thought, and he immediately feels bad for having it, but still.

 _Today is the day_ , he reassures himself.

He rushes through the rest of the day, but Alex was right – it doesn’t make time move any faster.

The art class he’s in creeps by. The music lesson he’s supposed to be leading seems to make time move even slower, especially when Carrie, the head of the Aphrodite Cabin, insists on debuting a new song that she’s been working on. (She would usually have to Charmspeak him into it, but he’s so bored that he might have let her do it without being magically persuaded.) The only good thing that comes out of the morning is the fact that his team wins the canoe race, because Luke is convinced that if they paddle fast enough, he can get back to shore and it will be time for archery.

After begging and pleading, Chiron had finally agreed to have a formal meeting with both Luke and Mr. D to discuss sending him to the Oracle for a quest. Chiron had said they could meet after the archery lesson he was teaching that day, and Luke plans to hold him to it.

But Chiron isn’t there when Luke races to the lesson.

“You?”

It’s not meant to be rude – he’s just shocked to see her – but as a Hunter of Artemis, Flynn is basically required to take anything a son of Apollo says as grounds for a fight. And as a son of Apollo, it’s his job to annoy any and all Hunters that he comes into contact with.

“Me,” she says. She eyes him up, plants her hands on her hips in a defiant stance. “You still cut the sleeves off your camp shirts? I thought you only did that because you were an angry thirteen-year-old.”

“Yeah, well now I’m an angry seventeen-year-old,” Luke shoots back. It’s supposed to be a comeback, but it comes out as exactly the kind of cringey comeback that a thirteen-year-old would think was witty. He tries to save face. “I thought that you hated this place so much that you’d galivant across the world with my aunt until it ends.”

Flynn scowls. “I don’t hate this place.”

Luke remembers it differently.

Flynn had been sixteen when Luke first came to camp. As the oldest child of Athena, she had been the head of Cabin Six, and she did not take her responsibilities lightly. But more importantly, she had been like Luke: desperate for a quest. When she realized she wouldn’t get one in the near future, she had run off to join The Hunters of Artemis. At the time, Luke had thought it was a silly idea, and that she should have just stuck it out. Then Luke had gotten older and become bitter about the fact that he still hadn’t gone on a quest. He could understand how she felt, but he would never admit it – especially not to her.

Luke looks around at the other kids making their way onto the archery range. Chiron isn’t there yet, and he can’t see him coming.

“Where’s –“

“He’s not coming,” Flynn says, pushing her braids behind her shoulder. “He asked me to lead the lesson, and to tell you that he would have to reschedule your meeting.”

The elation that’s been carrying him all day turns to a stone in the pit of his stomach. “What?”

“Sorry, kid.” For what it’s worth, she really does seem to feel bad for him.

Luke turns in the direction of the Big House, but Flynn grabs his hand.

“Where are you going?”

“To see Chiron.”

“Luke, I just told you that Chiron can’t see you. He’s busy.”

“With what?” Luke challenges. He doesn’t expect it to make Flynn look nervous.

She hesitates. “He can’t see you. And he gave me instructions to make sure that you follow your normal schedule for the rest of the day.”

The fact that Chiron has cancelled the meeting that he knows Luke has been waiting so long for stings, but it doesn’t sting as much as the fact that the centaur thinks Luke needs a Hunter to babysit him for the rest of the day.

Luke presses his lips together, determined to remain expressionless so that no one will see how angry he is about the whole thing. He grabs his bow and heads for one of the targets at the end of the range. He knocks an arrow, tugs back on the string, and fires.

 _Today was supposed to be the day_ , he thinks as the arrow hits its mark.

He’s almost grateful that he doesn’t have to lead the singalong that night. Carrie has somehow convinced Mr. D that she and a mix of the Aphrodite and Apollo girls should do it, which is fine with Luke; he doesn’t have much song in him after the day he’s had.

With complete disregard for the rules, he makes a pitstop before heading back to his cabin for bed. He catches up to Alex and Reggie outside of the cabins as everyone else heads inside for the night.

“How’d it go?” Reggie asks.

“It didn’t,” Luke says. “Chiron was busy, and then I had a Hunter watching every move I made for the rest of the day.”

Reggie slings an arm around his shoulder. “I’m sorry, dude.”

“Things seem serious,” Alex says. “The Hunters all seem more on edge than usual. I think they’ve found something.”

“What did they find?”

Alex shrugs. “Well, they found a half-blood who claims to be a daughter of Hecate, but that’s not enough to make them this worried.”

“A daughter of Hecate?” Reggie perks up. “So is she, like, a witch?” He whispers the last word, like it scares him.

“I don’t know if you should say that. It might be offensive.”

“Yeah,” Luke agrees. “And besides, there’s no such thing as witches.”

Reggie snorts and removes his arm from Luke’s shoulders. “Seriously? You’re saying there’s no such thing as witches as we stand in the middle of a magical camp made for children of the gods?”

It was ironic, to say the least.

“Well, she seems nice,” Alex says.

“You’ve met her?”

Alex nods, adjusting the strap of his fanny pack. “Chiron wants me to show her around camp.”

In the dark, Luke can see Reggie’s hurt face. “How come you always get to show new campers around? It’s not like you’ve been here longer than Luke and I.”

“Do you not remember what happened the time you and Luke tried to show new campers around?”

The memory makes Luke laugh, but he can tell by the look on Alex’s face that this is not the reaction he’s supposed to have. “Fair point, I guess.”

The lights in the cabins start to dim. They’ll be in trouble if they don’t get inside soon.

Alex turns to Reggie. “She hasn’t officially been claimed yet, so she’s staying in Cabin Eleven. Can you make sure that no one bothers her?”

“Yeah,” Reggie agrees. There’s something in his voice that Luke can’t quiet place. Sadness isn’t the right word for it, but it’s the same tone he uses whenever someone goes unclaimed, or when Cabin Eleven takes in a new camper.

“Well,” Alex says, looking around at the darkened cabins. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Night guys.” Reggie wraps his arms around his friends, and the three of them embrace in the darkness, just like they do every night. It makes Luke wonder if they’ll ever stop being afraid of losing each other.

“Good night,” Luke whispers, even though he knows he won’t be able to sleep when he goes to bed.


	2. The Weirdest Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got bored and took the quiz to see what cabin I would be in, and I got Athena, which was honestly the last thing I expected. My grades and I are both pretty shocked.
> 
> Chapter title comes from The Lightning Thief Musical (The Minotaur/The Weirdest Dream)

He’s had this dream too many times to count. It’s not even a dream – more of a memory, really. Sometimes it ends differently than it really did; he might be the one that’s separated from everyone else, and he spends hours running around the hotel calling out for his friends. Luke’s not sure if that’s worse or not. Either way, he always wakes up drenched in sweat with a scream forming in his mouth.

This dream is different from the others. Worse.

He’s in the lead, pulling Alex and Reggie behind him. People are crowded everywhere, blocking his path to escape, but he struggles past them. The doors loom up ahead. Bracing himself, he pushes past the security guards and into the street.

But this time, the street’s not there.

The doors open into a large ballroom. Fog swirls around his feet and soaks his lungs, filling him with fear. It’s like someone’s throwing a Halloween party and the smoke machine has gone out of control. The fog is thick and sweet smelling, begging him to keep taking deep breaths, despite how afraid every lung-full of air makes him.

He loses his grip on his friends’ hands. He starts to panic, reaching through the fog to find where they’ve gone. People are calling his name, but he can’t see anyone.

“Alex? Reggie?”

Someone grabs his shoulders and spins him around. A tall man in an ornate purple suit is towering over him, like he’s floating on the fog. He laughs as he watches Luke’s confused face.

“Luke!” His friends are behind the man, trying to run to him, but no matter how hard they try, they can’t reach him.

Luke reaches for them, but the man grabs his wrist.

“Mine,” he hisses, and his friends disappear into the fog.

Luke jolts awake, unable to catch his breath. Sunlight burns his eyes as he scrubs at his face. He’s so rattled by his dream that he’s not even bothered when he realizes that the cabin is empty. His first thought is that he should hurry, but he pushes the thought aside. He’s already behind, and if he’s going to be late, he might as well _be late_.

The empty cabin is surprisingly soothing. He basks in the silence as he pulls on a fresh shirt and brushes his teeth. He even takes the time to tie his shoes before he leaves.

Breakfast is well over. Campers are already moving through their activities for the day, and as Luke walks by them, he feels distant, like he’s just going through the motions. After the events of the day before and the dream he had, he just wants to breathe for a second before he’s thrust back into his role of Head of the Apollo Cabin. If he’s going to play his part well then he’ll have to enjoy a brief intermission first.

He’s supposed to teach a music lesson later in the morning. He can be late for everything else, but he can insist on being early to that. But when he pushes open the door to the music room, he finds that someone else has had the same idea.

Someone is hiding behind a row of instruments, breathing in wet, heavy gasps. “How long?”

Luke stops in his tracks, afraid to interrupt. Whoever is crying is standing behind the tall rack of guitars. He had thought about grabbing his guitar and leaving, but there’s no way to do it without alerting the other person of his presence. What happens if he’s seen and they get angry? Or worse, what if they want to be consoled, and he has to deal with emotions?

“You’re telling me that my father has been missing for a week, and this is the first time that I’m hearing about it?!” The voice grows louder, angrier. The new tone makes it entirely too easy to recognize.

Escaping seems like the best option. Luke’s already turned back toward the door when he hears her step around the guitar rack and gasp.

“What are you doing here?” Carrie demands.

He freezes and turns to face her. He does it slowly so that he won’t scare her. Alex had once tried to teach him about dealing with scared or wild animals, and while he can’t remember most of the lesson, he figures that the same rules apply.

“No, not you!” Carrie shouts into the phone in her hand. She huffs as she jabs it with an angry finger and then shoves it into the pocket of her shorts. Her gaze never leaves Luke, and it doesn’t take a genius to see that she’s absolutely livid. “Were you spying on me?”

“No!” Luke promises. “No, no, it’s not what it looks like! I just came in here –“

“To spy on me,” Carrie supplies. “because I’m in trouble for ditching activities this morning.”

Luke quirks an eyebrow. “You’re skipping too?”

Carrie sighs and runs a finger under her eyes, brushing away the tears that had spilled over. She fixes Luke with a hard gaze. “What are you really doing here?”

“I came here to get away, too.”

She must decide that he’s telling the truth, because she doesn’t ask again. Awkwardness settles between them and they both look away, embarrassed by what they’ve seen. Since the moment she arrived at camp, Carrie has had a reputation for having a heart made of stone harder than any statue Medusa could produce. If word got out that she had snuck away from activities to cry, she’d be done for. At least among the Aphrodite Cabin, Luke reasons. The rest of the camp would have a good laugh and then move on with their lives.

Carrie must realize this at the same time Luke does, because she snaps to attention and looks him dead in the eyes. “You won’t tell anyone about what happened in here.”

He’s felt the effects of her charmspeak before, but this feels weaker, like her emotions are polluting her intentions. But when someone who can charmspeak demands something from you, it’s always safer to comply. He plays along and salutes her.

“For what it’s worth,” he says, knowing full well he’s tempting fate. “I’m sorry about your dad.”

She turns away from him and her shoulders shake.

Not emotions! That’s Alex’s area of expertise, and he is so not ready to deal with that.

Carrie saves him the trouble. “Take your guitar and get out.”

This time, her words are fully loaded, and he finds himself complying before he even means to.

It’s not like he’s never skipped activities before. Everyone does it at least once, and Mr. D is usually willing to look the other way as long as they’re not flaunting the fact that they’re not where they’re supposed to be. So as Luke strolls through the camp, stumming his guitar all the way, he’s determined to be halfway conspicuous about it.

He finds Reggie on the docks, weaving a basket while he watches the naiads sitting under the water. ( _Weaving_ is a generous way to describe it. Reggie’s attention is mostly on the girls in the water, and his basket is barely started.)

“Hey, Luke.” He grins when Luke flops down next to him, still strumming his guitar. His eyes move from Luke’s tired appearance to the incessant plucking of his guitar strings.

“What did I miss this morning?” Luke asks before Reggie can ask him questions that he really doesn’t feel like answering.

Reggie sets his basket aside tilts his head back, basking in the sunlight and the warm breeze coming off the water. “The new girl got claimed at breakfast. Looks like Hecate really is her mom.”

Something tugs at the bottom of Luke’s heart. Because he’s gone unclaimed for so many years, Reggie likes to play himself off as not being a very powerful demigod. But it’s in the moments like these, when his emotions run high, that Luke can feel the power gathering under his friend’s skin, waiting to be let loose. If only Reggie could figure out what that power was, or where it came from.

Luke slips his guitar strap over his head and lays the instrument beside him on the dock. He opens his mouth, _I’m sorry_ already on the edge of his lips when Reggie cuts him off.

“Don’t,” Reggie sighs. “It’s fine.”

In their earlier days at camp, Alex and Luke would have pushed him to talk through his feelings, hoping to understand what their friend feels, but Reggie’s been making it obvious that he doesn’t want to think about it. As any good healer knows, it safer not to pick at a scab that’s freshly sealed itself over.

Luke picks up Reggie’s basket and starts weaving it himself. “Have you met her? The new girl, I mean.”

“Julie,” Reggie supplies. “Yeah, I met her last night. She seems really nice. She’s from California, like us.”

“No way.”

Reggie nods. He winks at one of the naiads and runs a hand through his hair before he continues, “Alex is showing her around. We’ll probably get to meet her at some point. And maybe you’ll be able to meet with Chiron now that she’s settling in.”

On cue, Alex appears behind them. He eyes Luke and the basket and says something about Luke not being where he’s supposed to be, but Luke doesn’t hear any of it – he’s too focused on the girl standing beside his friend.

Luke has never actually met a child of Hecate. He’s not sure what he expected; maybe someone dressed in dark colors with a shroud of eyeliner obscuring her eyes, kind of like how Reggie used to dress before they came to camp. He didn’t expect someone who looks so bright.

The daughter of Hecate wears the orange camp shirt like everyone else, but she makes it her own. Her shorts are covered with fabric paint, turning them into a fresco of butterflies and small scenes of Greek heroes. Butterflies seem to be her thing – they’re doodled onto her sneakers and bedazzled butterfly clips glitter in her hair, creating a crown of light that sparkles in the sunlight whenever she moves. She doesn’t look like the picture of darkness and tricky magic that Luke was expecting.

Reggie nudges Luke’s leg with his own, dragging him back to reality. Alex is staring at him expectantly.

“Huh?”

“Are you gonna introduce yourself?” His friend asks.

“Oh, um, hi.” Luke stands and holds out his hand for a shake. “I’m Luke. Cabin Seven.”

“Julie,” she says, her hand soft in his. “Daughter of Hecate.”

“How do you like camp so far?”

Julie nods, her butterfly clips scattering little rainbows over the dock. “It’s nice. It’s a lot to take in, though.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Alex assures her. He’s always been good with new campers. He says it’s because he’s got a softer touch than the other older campers, and it’s true. Now Luke can understand why Alex is always the one who gets to show new campers around. That, and the fact that he hasn’t lost any yet.

He turns his attention to Luke. “Julie likes music. I was going to show her where her music lessons will be, but the door is locked. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

The question veiled behind his tone is clear: _Did you do something because you were upset?_ It’s not an unfair question, Luke knows, but he wishes that his friend would have more faith in him than _that_. He only did something drastic the one time!

Luke’s ready to defend himself, to explain why the door is locked, but the words lodge in his throat. His mouth is somehow dry and sticky all at once, making his tongue too heavy to move. Carrie’s charmspeak has a hold on him after all.

“No,” Luke lies. “I don’t know why it would be locked.”

In his peripheral vision he can see Reggie shoot Alex a worried look, but no one challenges his answer.

“Well, could you maybe –“

“Alex!” One of the younger campers is running toward them. She almost tackles him as she skids to a stop, breathless. “One of the Aphrodite boys is stuck in the strawberries!”

“What?”

“One of the satyrs started playing _Toxic_ and the vines went crazy and now he’s stuck and no one can get him out and –“

Alex shakes his head. “Willie,” he mutters, a small smile pushing up the corners of his mouth. He’s serious again in an instant, turning to Julie. “Sorry, we’ll have to finish our tour later.”

“I can finish showing her around,” Luke offers.

Reggie snorts. “There’s a reason that we’re not allowed to lead tours.”

Alex looks between Julie and Luke, chewing his lip as he considers it. “Luke, if your take an impromptu shortcut through the woods and lose another camper, I swear to the _gods_ –“

“I’m not gonna lose another camper,” Luke promises.

There’s a scream that echoes from across camp, coming from the direction of the strawberry patches.

Alex sighs. “Okay. I’ll meet up with you guys later.” He turns on his heels and runs across camp, off to save the day.

Julie watches him go before she turns back to Luke. If she’s nervous about getting lost in the woods, she doesn’t show it.

Luke picks his guitar up from the dock and slips the strap across his chest. “For the record, my tours are _way_ more fun than the ones Alex gives.”

Julie laughs. Her laugh is like music in the way that it rings out between them, loud and clear. The sound makes him forget about the feelings of disappointment and dread that have been tangling in his chest all day.

The tours that they’re supposed to give to new campers are boring. Alex follows them to the letter, but Luke makes a point of showing Julie all the best places that the tour leaves out. He shows her the spot where he got into a fist fight with a Hunter during his first year of camp, the place where Reggie accidentally cut an Ares kid’s hair, and the exact spot that Alex swears he once saw Hera herself watching the camp.

“Wow,” Julie says after they’ve made it back to the dock. “This place is way more eventful than I was told it would be.”

“Yeah, don’t let whatever Alex told you scare you off. We have fun here. Especially if you’re a full-time camper.” He glances at her as he says the last part. It’s easy to look at someone’s expression and guess if they plan to stay at camp or not.

But her expression betrays nothing. “Actually, Alex said that you guys have a great time here. My mom’s stories just painted a different picture, I guess. She liked it here, but she always said that I would know when it was time to move on.”

“I can’t remember Hecate ever visiting camp.”

“Not Hecate,” Julie corrects. “She’s my mother. I mean my _mom_. She used to come here.”

_Used to_. Her face falls as she says it.

“Oh, so you’re like Carrie?”

“Who?”

“Carrie,” Luke explains. “Her dad was a son of Apollo who went on to become some famous Rockstar. He fell in love with Aphrodite and they had her.”

Julie shakes her head. “I guess. I had already been born when my dad met my mom. She was a daughter of Iris.”

“Free Iris messages, cool,” Luke muses.

She laughs. “There’s no family discount. Trust me, my little brother has tried.”

“I didn’t know that you came here with a brother.”

“I didn’t. He’s still in California.”

_She’s from California, like us_ , Reggie had said.

“That’s where my friends and I are from.”

“What are the odds?” She’s new – she doesn’t know that there aren’t odds like this, just the Fates. And Luke is so caught up in learning more about her that he doesn’t even question it.


	3. *sick guitar riff* The Prophecy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am once again procrastinating another essay :)
> 
> I also want to apologize for how often the boys call each other "bro" "dude" and "man". My friends and I only ever refer to each other this way and I've recently realized that most friend groups use actual names, but I it just feels wrong if I don't sprinkle these words into the interactions I write

Chiron often wakes up before everyone else at camp. All the year-round campers know this, and they had grown used to seeing him strolling around in the mornings. There are times when Luke resents being stuck at camp all year, but sometimes the extra knowledge that comes with living at Camp Half-Blood has its perks.

He’s crouched down in the bushes outside of the Big House, eyes trained on the front door, waiting for Chiron to make an appearance. Julie and the Hunters seemed to be settled in to camp life, but Luke still hasn’t been granted a meeting. If Chiron won’t meet with him directly, then Luke is ready to find another way to talk to him.

The front door opens and Luke begins to stand, but stops when Mr. D steps out onto the porch, wearing nothing but leopard print underwear and a matching dressing robe, which he hasn’t even had the decency to tie closed. A few of the younger Apollo campers had told Luke that Mr. D reminded them of a man named Joe Exotic, and even though Luke has no clue who that is, he can’t help but wonder if it’s just Mr. D with a different wig.

Blinded by what he’s seen, Luke lowers himself back into the bushes, wincing as they rustle around him. He sighs in relief when the camp director doesn’t acknowledge his presence.

Mr. D never looks toward the bushes. He summons a coffee mug from thin air and then takes a long sip and deadpans, “You inherited a lot of your father’s talents, Mr. Petterson, but stealth is a skill that neither of you possess.”

Luke stands even though he’d rather not. Mr. D is still a god, after all. “It’s _Patterson_.”

“That doesn’t sound right.” Mr. D takes another sip from his mug, now turning to watch Luke as they speak. It’s kind of intimidating, him standing half-naked on the porch, staring down at Luke, who’s standing in a bush like a dryad. “Four years you’ve been at this camp, and I’ve never known you to be a morning person. I can’t begin to imagine why you’re starting now. Unless . . .”

“Unless?” Luke prompts.

Mr. D sighs in annoyance. “Don’t play the fool with me, Papadopoulos –“

“Patterson.”

“ – everyone in camp knows that you’re desperate to meet with Chiron about your quest. Though, personally, I can’t even begin to imagine why you demigods are all so desperate to be sent to your untimely demise.”

Luke is about to argue that his quest will be different, that he and his boys will return victorious and having pleased their parents, but Mr. D continues.

“But I wouldn’t worry about speaking with Chiron any time soon. With the Hunters here and all the little half-divine brats like yourself going missing, no one will be going on any sort of quest for a while.”

“Demigods are going missing?” He thinks about the conversation he heard Carrie having a few days before: _You’re telling me that my father has been missing for a week, and this is the first time that I’m hearing about it?!_ Her father had been a demigod himself. Sure, some demigods grew up and became successful and lived to tell the tale, but they usually weren’t suddenly thrown back into the midst of the godly world after they had gotten older. Did her father’s disappearance have something to do with whatever was going on outside of camp? Was it connected with his weird dreams?

Mr. D just waves a hand dismissively, like the lives of mortals and demigods mean nothing to him.

“I need to talk to Chiron,” Luke says. “I’ve been having weird dreams lately, and I think they might be connected to whatever’s happening outside of camp –“

“How can you know that when I only just told you that something is happening in the outside world?”

It’s a textbook Mr. D response. Luke knows that the camp director is just trying to get a rise out of him, to make him angry and that he shouldn’t give in, but he feels his fists clench at his sides. “Because I didn’t realize why I was having weird dreams, but I think now they’re connected to the quest I was supposed to have –“

“You weren’t _supposed_ to have a quest. You _wanted_ to have a quest. There’s a difference. And you’ve had weird dreams since the first day you came to camp. That’s nothing new, and it’s not an excuse for you to talk to Chiron.”

“But these dreams are _different_ ,” Luke insists. “and I didn’t realize why I was having them until you mentioned that something was happening in the real world. So, you see, I’ve connected the dots –“

“You didn’t connect shit.*” Mr. D takes a long sip of his coffee, staring Luke straight in the eye as he does it, challenging him to interrupt. He smacks his lips and tilts his head thoughtfully. “Everyone else will be waking up soon and going to their activities. You might get behind if you miss another day. And it would be such a shame to have to have to punish you by taking away that shiny little guitar of yours when you make such nice music with it.”

Instinctively, Luke’s hand flies to his shoulder in search for his guitar strap, even though he knows it’s back in his room. There have been too many times in his life that Luke has had his instrument taken from him as punishment. The guitar Apollo gave him when he came to camp is special to him, and Luke would fight to the death to keep it. He can feel his face burning and he knows that Mr. D has won.

“I’ll be heading to activities, then,” he spits. He trips out of the bushes with as much dignity as he can manage, refusing to look back at the porch where he knows the god of wine is smiling with the triumph that comes from breaking other people’s dreams.

“I’m sorry,” Julie says.

Luke looks up from the sculpture he’s totally butchering. “Huh?”

“I’m sorry,” Julie repeats. “Flynn told me that you were supposed to be getting sent on a quest, but that all your plans got put on hold when I came to camp.”

“You don’t have to be sorry,” Luke assures her, suddenly feeling guilty for how desperately he’s been trying to get sent on a quest. “It wasn’t your fault, Julie.” He lowers his voice so that the other campers won’t hear him. “Something is going on outside of camp. Demigods are going missing. Chiron won’t be letting anyone go on quests for a while.”

Julie pulls her paintbrush back from the ceramic pot that she’s been decorating. A shroud of dark emotion falls across her face. “That was why my dad was in such a hurry to get me here.”

“Did something happen on your way to camp?”

“No.” Julie resumes her painting, albeit distractedly. “No, the Hunters found me as we were leaving California. They talked my dad into letting them bring me to camp because they thought it would be safer if I traveled with them.”

“Oh.”

 _I made it awkward_ , Luke thinks, regret washing over him. A silence falls between them. Unsure of how to fix it, Luke turns back to his own artwork, a bust of his father’s head.

“It’s too bad that you can’t just make your own,” Julie says.

“My own what?”

“Prophecy,” Julie says. “That being one of your father’s areas of expertise. It’s too bad that you can’t just make your own prophecy to get your quest.”

Luke’s chisel slips, severing his statue’s nose and sending it tumbling to the ground. Her words bring about a realization that punches him in the chest. He’s so overtaken with the thoughts Julie’s words bring on that he can’t even respond.

“Luke, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Luke says, an idea already forming in the back of his mind. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“You should hurry and make your move.”

Luke drops his strawberries. He curses as he picks them up.

“Sorry,” Alex laughs. “But you can’t just keep staring at her, dude. You’ll have to make your move at some point.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Luke says, turning back to the strawberries, but with his full interest this time. He had been watching Julie and some of the other campers as they led a Pegasus around in front of the stables, thinking about what she had said a few hours before.

Reggie laughs. “Bro, you know exactly what Alex is talking about. You’re all moon-eyed for Julie!”

“I’m not moon-eyed, Reg.”

“Then what are you?”

“I’m just . . .” He’s grasping for words and he can’t find any. “I’m thinking.”

“Thought I smelled smoke,” Alex teases.

Luke tosses a strawberry at him, but his friend catches it with ease and takes a bite out of it. He can’t stop thinking about what Julie had said. His half-baked idea is becoming more and more advanced, and a mix of excitement and nervousness are wrestling in his stomach as he thinks about it.

“Well, if you’re gonna ask her out, you better hurry,” Reggie warns. “I heard a few Aphrodite campers saying that Carrie is mad because Nick can’t stop looking at her.”

For the second time that day, Luke is so taken off guard that he drops his strawberries. “What? Nick, like, Apollo Cabin Nick?”

“For someone who’s not crushing on Julie, you sure do seem upset,” Alex notes.

Luke crosses his arms. “I’m not upset. And I’m _not_ crushing on Julie!”

But he glances over at where she is and feels something harden in his chest as he watches her laugh at something Nick has just said. Yeah, Julie was really cool, but how could he have a crush on her when he’s only known her for a few days? And now he can’t understand why he’s so mad watching Nick talk to her. Luke has never been in a romantic relationship, and he doesn’t want to be – he’s worried that Apollo’s whole love-interests-turning-into-plants thing might be hereditary, and looking at how many people in his life he’s already lost, it’s not a chance that he’s willing to take. He tries to push those emotions aside to deal with later, and he’s surprised at how hard it is.

“Hey look!” Reggie holds up a ripe strawberry, giggling as he looks between it and Luke. “I found Luke’s twin.”

“I don’t have a crush,” he insists. But he did have the beginnings of a plan.

When it’s time for them to switch activities, Luke hands his basket of strawberries to Alex and slips off in the direction of the Big House.

Julie had been right – it was a shame that he couldn’t make his own prophecy. Her words had set a strange line of reasoning into motion. The Oracle of Delphi belonged to Apollo, which made Luke reason that he had some sort of claim on the Oracle himself. Shouldn’t he be able to talk to the Oracle at any time by birthright? Asking for permission was stupid; he would have to take what he wanted.

He would slip in the Big House when no one was paying attention and make his way to the attic. The Oracle would give him a prophecy, and then Luke would _have_ to be sent on a quest. Sure, Chiron would be angry, and there was always the risk of Mr. D turning him into a Dolphin. Luke wasn’t sure what he was going to do about that yet. He figured he would just burn that bridge when he got there, or whatever the saying was.

Luke creeps into the bushes for the second time that day. He stays crouched there for a while, making sure that no one comes in or out of the house. Eventually he decides the house is empty and runs toward the front door.

His hand is almost on the doorknob when the door opens and Flynn steps out. Luke yelps and stumbles back.

Flynn crosses her arms. “I know I didn’t do my makeup this morning, but do I really look that bad?”

“What?” Luke can’t stop his heart from trying to beat its way out of his chest. Out of all the people who could have caught him in the act, it had to be Flynn, who would show him no mercy.

It’s like she can read his thoughts. A frown tugs at the edges of her mouth. “Were you trying to sneak into the house?”

“Uh –“

“Because Chiron’s not here,” Flynn continues. “Look, I know you’re desperate to meet with him, but you can’t just go barging in and demanding to speak with him.”

It takes him a minute to realize what she’s saying. She thinks that he’s trying to bombard Chiron for a meeting – she doesn’t know that he’s trying to sneak into the attic. His survival instincts kick in and he plays along.

“If he’s not in here, then where is he? He’s been avoiding me all week.”

Flynn steps forward and puts a gentle hand on Luke’s shoulder, turning him away from the house and leading him back to the rest of camp. “Luke, you’re young –“

“You haven’t aged in years. Technically we’re the same age.”

“You’re young and you haven’t been in the real world in years. You don’t have any idea how much it’s changed since . . . you know.”

Luke winces.

If Flynn notices, she doesn’t comment on it. “I’m going to be real with you. Bad things are happening out there. It’s best if no one leaves camp for a while.”

After his encounter with Mr. D that morning, Luke doesn’t have the energy to argue with her. She seems to take his silence as a sign that he agrees.

She pats him on the back as they near the archery range. “You’ll get your quest, Luke. Just try to focus on your strategy for tomorrow to take your mind off things.” She breaks into a grin. “Because if Capture the Flag goes the way it did the last time the Hunters were at camp, you’re about to get served.”

Capture the Flag. Of course!

“Yeah,” Luke agrees, trying to keep his voice casual. “Yeah, I need to work on my strategy.”

“You reek of betrayal.”

“Sorry, man.” Reggie tightens the straps on Alex’s breastplate. “Cabin Nine has been killing it this year, and your cabin just hasn’t been up to snuff.” He shivers. “I can’t take another week of cleaning the bathrooms. The things I’ve seen . . . They’re unspeakable.”

Reggie has always been deadly serious about capture the flag, but Luke never thought he would see the day when his friend would choose the opposite team. When the two of them and Alex combined their talents, they were a force to be reckoned with. Still, Luke reasons, it’s probably for the best that they’re not on the same team this week. If they were together, Luke wouldn’t be able to slip away. He’s never been so glad to have a year where his cabin is doing badly.

“Bro, I also saw those things.” Luke shudders. He pulls his guitar over his head, then swings it over his shoulder and smiles as he feels it transform into a bow and a quiver of arrows.

“Well, you’ll be seeing them again,” Alex says. “But on your own this time.”

They join their cabins and make their way into the woods. Luke has heard the rules of capture the flag so many times that he’s usually able to zone out and run through his strategy in his head. This time the strategy is different, and if he messes up, he’s not sure what he’ll do.

The game begins. Luke follows the rest of his team further into the trees. His cabin is stuck with Ares and Aphrodite. The combined energies of their different cabins is weird, and everyone else is so busy looking at their reflections and fighting amongst themselves that no one notices when Luke breaks off from the group and circles back toward camp.

He creeps along until he reaches the edge of the trees. Camp appears before him, empty. Stealth takes a back seat as he runs out of the trees and across the camp, his armor and his arrows clattering as the Big House appears before him.

Luke skips up the stairs and quietly opens the front door. He slips in and shuts it behind him, feeling the excitement bubbling in his stomach. _You’re almost home free_ , he tells himself. He rounds the corner and freezes at the end of the hallway.

The attic hatch is open, the stairs lowered.

Several thoughts run through his head. His first thought is that the Oracle has somehow escaped, but then he remembers that everyone says she looks like a mummified raisin, and he realizes that she probably couldn’t escape the attic on her own. He briefly wonders in someone has stolen her, or if someone else had the same idea that he did, and then he hears the creaking above him as someone walks toward the attic hatch.

Luke ducks into a room and hides behind the door, leaving it open just enough so that he can see who comes down the stairs.

Whoever it is mutters to themselves as they get closer. He can hear them push the stairs back into place, and then they step into view.

Flynn is still for a moment and Luke holds his breath, afraid that she can hear him. She whispers something to herself and shakes her head before she moves on. Luke doesn’t move again until he hears the front door close.

 _Flynn?_ He could have named a hundred different campers who he would have expected to sneak into the attic before he would have guessed it was her. She had never been one for breaking the rules when Luke first met her. If she was sneaking around to see the Oracle, then she must have really changed.

Luke glances behind him as he pulls on the attic hatch. The stairs are barely on the ground before he scurries up, closing the hatch behind him, and enveloping himself in the darkness of the attic.

He’s heard stories about the Oracle – everyone has – but it’s different now that he’s alone. Creepy, even.

Dozens of weird trophies and artifacts line the cramped space, but Luke ignores them, making a beeline for the shadow in the back of the room that he knows will be his father’s Oracle. He’s slow walking up to her. If she’s anything like the other campers have described her, he’s not too eager to get an eyeful of her looks.

He stops a few feet away to keep her shrouded in shadow and finds that he has no clue what he’s supposed to do next. Out of respect for his father’s best Oracle, he takes off his helmet and kneels before her.

And that’s where he stays for an uncomfortable amount of time. The hard floor digs into his knee and the damp air of the attic is difficult to breathe. He peeks up at the Oracle, waiting for her to do something.

“Uh, hi?” He waves. “Hello?”

Behind him, the hatch opens and he hears the stairs unroll. Panicking, he looks around for a place to hide, and dives behind a stack of boxes that he prays aren’t filled with something that’s alive or gross.

“Hello?” Julie’s quiet voice fills the attic and Luke has to stop himself from jumping up from his hiding place.

He can’t see anything very well from behind the boxes, but the next thing he knows, the attic is filled with green light and a raspy voice that echoes around in his skull.

“Both must listen, for both are near,” a voice says, grinding against his eardrums like sandpaper. “You, the Scythe, and the Dove must travel west to the house ruled by fear.”

Even though he can’t see Julie, he can hear her footsteps backing up, like she wants to escape. Luke wants to help her, but he’s frozen in place as he listens.

“Sister versus brother, and brothers re-united with friends, the daughter of Hecate will guide the sons of Apollo home again.”

The light dies and everything goes still. Julie is breathing quickly. He can hear her hurry to the attic hatch and climb down the stairs. He doesn’t move until he hears the trapdoor shut. And even when he’s alone, he can barely manage to stand as he looks around the attic, confused.

“What just happened?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *From that one moment on Buzzfeed Unsolved that's become a meme


	4. Have a Little Empathy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took me so long to update! Turns out you can only procrastinate essays for so long before you have to actually write them

Capture the flag is only just ending when Luke sneaks back into the woods. He needs to find his team before someone realizes that he’s been missing the entire game.

A girl runs through the trees near Luke. “I need an Apollo camper!”

“I’m in Apollo!” he yells to her. _The daughter of Hecate will guide the sons of Apollo home again._

Her arm is clutched to her chest, red quickly seeping through the white cloth she’s clutching to it. Relief spreads over her face as she turns. She pauses when she realizes she’s talking to Luke, and then suddenly she’s tripping off in the other direction. “I’m good, actually!”

 _What kind of son of Apollo can’t heal people?_ Luke berates himself. 

_The daughter of Hecate will guide the sons of Apollo home again_. Had the oracle said “sons”, plural? Either way, he was a son of Apollo. Somehow, he was tied to Julie’s prophecy. It couldn’t be a coincidence, not when his own quest had just been sidelined.

People are pushing past him now, heading for the bonfire. He turns and follows them, swinging his bow over his shoulder to turn it into his guitar. The familiarness of the strings is a comfort as he walks to the amphitheater.

To say that he’s distracted would be an understatement. He leads the singalong, but he’s watching the crowd the whole time, looking for Julie.

She arrives late, led by Flynn. She finds a seat near Alex, but Flynn makes her way toward the campfire and stands between Chiron and Mr. D.

The crowd cheers when the song finishes, the flames of the campfire shoot upward with the excitement. Chiron steps forward and thanks Cabin Seven, dismissing them to go sit among their friends. Luke finds a seat beside Reggie and watches as Chiron stands in front of the fire, holding up a hand to silence everyone.

“I’m sure most of you have heard the rumors by now,” he says. “Strange things have been happening in the outside world. Demigods have been going missing for months now.”

Carrie shrinks in on herself a bit. She shoots Luke a scalding look when she sees him notice.

Chiron continues, “The Hunters of Artemis and the satyrs have been doing all they can to locate new Half-Bloods and bring them to camp before they disappear, but we’re all starting to worry. The purpose of Camp Half-Blood is to keep young heroes safe. That is why Mr. D and I made the hard decision to not send any Half-Bloods on quests for the rest of the summer.”

A murmur ripples through the crowd. Chiron holds up his hand again to calm them.

“Yesterday, after much deliberation, it was decided that Flynn should visit the Oracle in the hopes that she would be granted some sort of clue about how to stop this new threat.” He pauses, looks at the Hunter. “Would you like to take it from here?”

Flynn takes a deep breath and steps forward. Luke can’t think of a time where she’s seemed nervous about something, but from where he sits, he can see that her hands are trembling ever so slightly.

“I went to the attic to consult the Oracle of Delphi, but she didn’t want to talk to me. In fact, she specifically asked me to bring Julie to her.”

Campers are gasping and looking around the stands, trying to find Julie. The flames of the campfire change through several colors, like a confused chameleon as it soaks up their reactions.

Julie wipes the palms of her hands as she stands up, offering a small wave to her fellow campers.

 _Ouch_ , Luke thinks to himself. He’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t hurt by the news. Four years of begging for a quest got him nothing, but the Oracle asks for Julie when she’s been at camp, for . . . what? All of twenty minutes?

Reggie reaches out and squeezes his hand. “This is your chance, dude!”

He’s right; Julie still needs people to accompany her, and he’s ready to fill that role.

“Miss Molina,” Chiron says. “You have been gifted a prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi, and a quest is an order. You will need to pick companions to accompany you. I believe you mentioned that the prophecy gave specifications for who you will travel with.”

“The Scythe and the Dove,” Julie quotes.

“Someone from Cabin Four and someone from Cabin Ten; Demeter and Aphrodite.”

Reggie sighs and turns to Luke. “Tough break man. Maybe next time.”

_The daughter of Hecate will guide the sons of Apollo home again._

“Just wait,” Luke whispers. He’s a son of Apollo. He’s connected to her prophecy somehow.

“From Cabin Four, I choose Alex,” Julie announces.

Alex blanches. “What? Julie –“

“And the camper from Aphrodite is me, obviously!” Carrie flips her curly hair over her shoulder as she stands, all smiles as she looks at Julie.

The campfire flickers as everyone studies her with confusion.

“Miss Wilson,” Chiron says, his voice uncertain. “Are you . . . Are you _volunteering_ for a quest?”

“That’s not fair,” Reggie mutters to Luke. “She went on a quest last summer to find some perfume that had been discontinued.”

An eerie quiet forms around them as everyone stops talking. Carrie is staring right at Reggie, her eyes cold.

“What?”

Reggie clears his throat and stands to face her. “To be fair, Carrie, you had a quest last summer, and you succeeded. Some of us have never been on a quest before.”

“Because ‘ _some of us_ ’ have never been claimed!” Carrie sneers.

Out of the corner of his eye, Luke can see Chiron coming forward, about to break up the argument and set things back on track, but Mr. D stops him. The god summons a stool from thin air and takes a seat.

“This is just getting good!” Mr. D laughs when Chiron gives him an incredulous look.

Reggie’s cheeks are red. “It’s still not fair, Carrie. You have siblings who have never been on a quest. Why not give them a turn to impress the gods?”

Carrie ignores him, turning her full attention to Julie. When she speaks, her voice is suddenly low and sweet. “Julie, I think we both know that you want me on this quest.”

“You can’t just charmspeak her into it!” Reggie protests.

“I’m the most qualified child of Aphrodite in camp,” Carrie continues. “You want me on your quest.”

“You don’t have to listen to her, Julie!” Something in Reggie’s voice is different. It’s more melodic than it usually is, and it grabs everyone’s attention. Julie, and everyone else who had been hanging on to Carrie’s every word, now turn to look at him.

“I’m going on this quest!”

“Julie is allowed to pick any child of Aphrodite!”

And then the strangest thing happens. The air around Reggie begins to blur, taking on a faint pink glow that turns into a blinding light.

Luke has to shield his eyes. When the light dies, he’s taken aback. Where one of his best friends had stood, it looks like someone else has taken his place.

It takes Luke a minute to realize that it’s still Reggie standing beside him. He looks like some kind of young Aeneus or Achilles and he doesn’t even seem to realize that he’s changed.

His camp shirt and jeans have been replaced by a toga with delicate gold embroidery decorating the edges. His sneakers have been replaced with gold sandals and his wrists have been adorned with gold cuff bracelets that take up most of his forearm. Black nail polish has appeared on his hands, the perfect manicure. Soft eyeliner outlines his eyes, giving his gaze a piercing quality that makes Luke think his friend can see directly into people’s hearts, straight to the root of their desires.

Reggie’s muscles and jawline have become more defined. He looks older, more serious. His hair is a little longer, too, still pushed back in his usual style, making him look regal. Or maybe it’s the cape and the sword that give him his new imperial look.

“Let Julie make the choice herself, Carrie!” he says, power rolling off his every word – charmspeak.

Carrie sits.

“Reggie,” Luke whispers, still taking in his friend’s new look.

Reggie’s voice softens as he turns to Luke. “What?”

A hologram of a dove appears above his head, casting another gentle pink glow over him.

“No!” Carrie cries.

People gasp, but no one louder than Alex and Luke, who have been hoping for this moment for years.

“What?” Reggie looks around. The bracelet on his wrist catches the light, and for the first time, Reggie realizes that something has happened. He holds his wrist up and squints at his reflection in it.

“Holy shit,” he whispers.

“Reginald Peters,” Chiron announces. “Child of Aphrodite.”

Julie’s face breaks into a grin. “I choose Reggie from Cabin Ten!”

A cheer goes up around them. Luke stands and wraps his arms around Reggie, happy for his friend, and even happier for what this means. Excitement spreads through him as he thinks of what comes next.

_The daughter of Hecate will guide the sons of Apollo home again._

“And I’ll go, too!” Luke assures Julie with a grin. “The questing party is complete!”

Mr. D laughs, a loud, almost manic sound that draws everyone’s attention. He’s perched on the edge of his stool, clapping as his body shakes with laughter. When he’s out of air he stops and swipes a finger under his eyes, flicking away the tears.

“I didn’t know you were such a comedian, Papajohn,” he wheezes.

“Patterson.”

Chiron clears his throat. “Mr. D, I’m sure there is a better way to deal with this. A more professional approach, perhaps.”

“Of course,” Mr. D agrees, still giggling. He leans back on his stool and crosses his arms, studying Luke. “The rules seem to escape you at the most convenient of times, Luke. You want a quest so badly that you completely overlooked the fact that a quest leader may take only two companions with them.”

“I’m confused,” Julie says. “Why can’t I take all three of them?”

“Three is a sacred number,” Chiron says. “Any time that more than three people have attempted to go on a quest together, they have met an ill fate. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, Miss Molina, but you may only take two questing companions, and they must be the two specified by the prophecy.”

 _The daughter of Hecate will guide the sons of Apollo home again_.

“But I _have_ to go on this quest!” Luke insists.

This only sets Mr. D laughing again. “If you _had_ to go then the Oracle would have mentioned you. But did she? No.”

Luke begins to speak, to inform the camp director that the Oracle had, in fact, mentioned him, and that was precisely why he had to accompany Julie on her quest. He has to bite the inside of his cheek to hold back his words, knowing that there would be no way to explain how he happens to know what Julie’s prophecy says.

Luckily, Julie saves him.

“Actually, the prophecy did mention something about the sons of Apollo.”

Chiron and Mr. D share a look.

“What did your prophecy say about them?” Chiron asks.

“‘ _The daughter of Hecate will guide the sons of Apollo home again_ ,’” Julie quotes.

“But she never mentioned travelling with one for the purposes of the quest.” Mr. D looks at Luke and shrugs in a way that says _there’s nothing you can do about it_.

Luke’s teeth dig deeper into the flesh of his cheek.

Mr. D sees this and a smile spreads across his face. “If you have something to say, son of Apollo, you should say it. It’s not healthy to hold on to so much anger.”

“He’s goading you on,” Reggie whispers. “Don’t take the bait.”

But something in Mr. D’s voice, in his haughty and all-mighty demeanor, digs a little too deep into Luke’s skin, like shards of glass. And before he knows what’s happening, he’s on a whole rant, with words tumbling from his mouth before he can stop them, making people gasp and giggle as he rips the god in front of him to shreds with his words.

Mr. D takes most of it in stride, which only makes Luke more upset.

He’s not sure exactly what he says, or how long he’s been going on, but he comes to with the words that tip him too far over the edge.

“ . . . lazy, Joe Exotic looking –“

And suddenly Mr. D is on his feet, his face purple with rage. The smell of grapes fills the air as the god’s eyes begin to glow with a purple fire. Vines spring up at Luke’s feet, clawing their way out of the ground and up his body, squeezing him like a boa constrictor.

“Dionysus!” Chiron yells. “That is enough!”

A clap of thunder sounds overhead; the gods agree.

The fire in the camp director’s eyes dies and the vines loosen ever so slightly. Alex is by his side in an instant, coaxing the angry vines back into the ground from where they appeared.

Chiron stomps one of his front hooves to call everyone to order. In all his years at camp, after all the shenanigans and pranks Luke has taken part in, he has never seen Chiron lose his composure. Even now the centaur remains calm, but something in his expression tells Luke that this time he’s gone too far.

“I think we’ve had enough excitement for today,” he announces. “Everyone head back to your cabins for the night, except for Julie’s questing group, and Luke.”

 _And Luke_. He doesn’t like his name used as a last-minute tack-on, but he’s in too deep to say anything.

Julie and his friends make their way to the bottom of the amphitheater as everyone else files back to their cabins for the night. Luke watches them go, silently pleading for them to take their time so that he won’t have to have this conversation. He already knows that there’s nothing he can do to convince Chiron that he should be on Julie’s quest, but he doesn’t want to hear him say it.

“It’s been an eventful night,” Chiron says when the amphitheater is finally empty. He gestures to Luke and his friends. “Now, I know that the three of you are a package deal, as it were, but I am afraid that this is one time that you will have to be separated.”

“But sir,” Alex interrupts, something he’s never done before. “We can’t just leave Luke here. We can’t be split up again.”

From the corner of his eye, Luke can see Julie’s brow furrow in confusion as she whispers to herself. “Again?”

Chiron continues on, probably saying something witty and wise that placates everyone else, but Luke can’t focus on his words. He could list a thousand reasons why he and his friends shouldn’t be separated, but he can’t make himself say them, at least not with Julie around.

“ – tomorrow at dawn. You are travelling west, so it’s best to get a head start.” Chiron turns to Luke. “It’s getting late, and there are things I must discuss with Julie, Alex, and Reggie. Meet me in the Big House tomorrow morning before breakfast, Luke, and we can discuss what happened here tonight.”

He’s angry, but somehow he doesn’t have the energy to fight back. He hugs Alex and Reggie, wishes them luck, and offers Julie a smile. The amphitheater echoes the sound of his footsteps as he leaves, alone, back to his cabin.

Except he doesn’t go back to his cabin.

The first time he found the Grove of Dodona was an accident, and frankly, he’s never been able to find the place again. It’s easier to just wander into the woods and hope that he somehow ends up in the right spot. And now that he’s looking for it, it seems more evasive than ever. The Grove isn’t technically associated with Apollo, but maybe it can help him somehow.

He’s not sure how long he spends wandering through the trees, but eventually he reaches a clearing and stops walking. A shaky breath racks through his body and he drops to his knees. He’s not so great when it comes to talking to his dad, but the day he’s just had might make a pious man of him yet.

“I’m surprised that you haven’t just decided to follow them,” a voice says behind him. It’s not the voice he was hoping to hear, and definitely not one that he expected.

Willie walks through the trees and stops a few feet away. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize that you were praying.”

“No.” Luke stands and faces his old friend, somehow finding more comfort in him then the half-formed angry prayers that he was about to send to his father. “No, it’s fine. I was just . . . thinking, is all.” He was so thrown off by Willie’s presence that it takes him a minute to register his words. “What did you say?”

“I said that I was surprised you haven’t decided to just follow Alex and Reggie on their quest.” Willie has never been one for following the rules, but from what Luke can see of his expression in the dim light of the woods, he looks almost nervous as he suggests Luke break them.

“Are you okay?”

The smile that finds its way onto Willie’s face is just a little too forced. Luke has seen him in both his most chill and most panicked state, and he knows that something is off.

“Willie?”

The satyr shifts from hoof to hoof, his eyes flickering around the trees like he’s worried that someone might hear them. “Look man, I don’t know if I should tell you this. It’s not even my story to tell, it’s Alex’s, and if he found out that I told you, I think he would be really upset, and that’s the last thing that I want –“

“Breathe.” Luke’s hands find their way to Willie’s shoulders, grounding him.

It must work, because Willie takes a deep breath. “Alex never wanted to go on a quest.”

“What?”

“The idea always freaked him out. But he saw how excited that you and Reggie were at the possibility of getting one someday, so he went along with it. And now that he’s one of Julie’s questing companions he doesn’t know what to do.”

“If Alex never wanted a quest, then why did he just go with it when Reggie and I talked about it? He could have just told us. He knows that we wouldn’t be mad.”

“I know,” Willie says. “He knows. But he didn’t want for you guys to be separated again.”

It’s been four years since he came to camp and Luke still finds himself involuntarily shuddering whenever someone mentions the possibility of his friends being separated from him.

“I went to talk to him after he met with Chiron,” Willie continues.

 _How long have I been wandering around out here?_ Luke wonders.

“He’s worried. He’ll have Reggie, but he’s worried about you, and the possibility of . . . you know. Not coming back from the quest.”

“Is there even anything we can do? After what happened at the bonfire, Chiron and Mr. D aren’t going to listen to me.”

“You’ve never let that sort of thing stop you before.”

Something like a laugh pushes its way up Luke’s throat. He’s right; why has Luke wasted so much time asking for permission when his best outcomes have always stemmed from doing what he wants?

“I’ve never heard of anyone just sneaking out on a quest.”

“It’s Camp Half-Blood, dude. Trust me when I say that weirder things have happened.”

A battle plan is already untangling itself in Luke’s mind. “They leave at dawn. I’m supposed to meet with Chiron tomorrow morning. If I follow them and don’t show up to the meeting, then he’ll know what I’ve done and someone will be sent to find me before I can even catch up with the quest.”

“Unless everyone’s too busy to notice you’re gone.” A smile worthy of a trickster presents itself on the satyr’s face as he says it.

“What do you have in mind?”

“A couple of Hermes kids owe me a favor or two,” Willie says. “I’m sure they can come up with something that’s bound to keep Chiron and Mr. D busy for at least a few hours.”

“You’d do that?”

The question seems to shock Willie. “Of course, dude. We’re friends.” A brief pause. “And I would feel a lot better knowing that Alex is with the two people he feels safest with.”

“You said you were shocked that I wasn’t going to follow them, but why aren’t you? Following them, I mean.”

Willie twists the rings that adorn his fingers. “I offered, but Alex was worried that I would get in trouble. I even offered to form an empathy link with him so that I could find him if something went wrong.”

“He didn’t let you?”

“He was worried his anxiety would give me a lot of false alarms.”

A lot could go wrong on this quest. Three powerful demigods traveling from coast to coast was bound to catch the attention of at least a few monsters. That, coupled with whatever was going on in the outside world that made Chiron put quests on hold, was enough to make the mind run through several worst-case scenarios. He can understand why Alex wouldn’t want to worry the guy he’s been crushing on for four years, but at the same time, having a satyr in your corner was a definite plus on a quest.

Before he can fully register what he’s saying, the words are out of his mouth. “Then make one with me.”

Willie blinks. “What?”

This time, he has no doubts. “Make an empathy link with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I was the most excited to write this chapter because I was excited for Reggie to be claimed. Thank you for reading!


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